>> the house will stand inin recess subject to e callll of the chair. >> this week on "inside washington," john boehner's plan b collalapses and the house goes home for christmas. >> it is hard to get y your mind around said that someone so young could leave us, and such a peaceful communi such an horrific event. >> anonother massacre and another called for gun-control. >> the fact of this problem is

complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing. >> hands brawl after the state depapartment report on benghazi, but are they theey right hands? >> the compound was inadequate for the threat environmnment in benghazi, and in fact, grossly inadequate to deal with the attacks that took place that night. >> wilill former republican senator chuck hagel makee it to the pentntagon? >> the house did not take up the tax measure today because it t did not have suffificient support from our mberto pass. house speaker john boehner's statement on thursday evening as he stood in front of the house republican conference on thursday night, he recited the serenity prayer. don, grarant me the serenity to accept the things that i cannot change, and close the house for

business until after christmasas. there is place like an empty house for the holidays. his plan be died. >> let me be clear speaker boehner's plans are nonstarters in the senate. >> boehner appeared on friday morning and said, if this thing were easy, it would d have been done decades ago. >> i am interested in solving the major problemsms that face our country. that means house leaders, senate leaders, and the president, are going to continue to he to work together to address s those concerns. >> the president has liftedis number to 400,000 no tax hikes for anyone the knicks st that in the year. boehner wants to " tax hikes for those making more than 1 million. what happened? >> hdid not have the votes, as simple as thatat. he had to pull back. his o caucus let him wn. he thought he could get the 218

votes he needed from his caucus and they were not there. >> are we going over the cliff? >> there is a chance we could avert that. boehner's statement on friday morning suggests that he was still willing to work k with the president to come up with someththing. ththe outcome is likely to be that the fringes on both parties will have to be forgotten and they will have e to pull in enough republicans of a moderate nature and the majority of democrats to make this work, but t you are not going to get the house caucus to back anythinas a group. >>. the ooutcome is likely to what are republicans doing night on the ns was to see very

conservative republicanslmost literally rolling their eyes at what had happened. there is still a chance. this is a lame duck congress and it will bebe easier in the next one, even if it is only one week into o the next one. still, colgate is right. obviously, they cannot do it with a unified republican caucus.. >> charles, play it out for us. >> boehner had a plan c, the mayan apocalalypse. if you are watching on the weekend, obviously, , that o did not work county there. -- out either. i think they will go over the cliff. the main objective that obama had was not a fiscacal 1 but political, to fofoow the victory in november byreating cil war among republicans to their brand? to watch that scene last over the tax issue, which is exactly what happened. he said the 1 requirement i have for any deal is hiking tax rates. the reason that boehner was not able to do plan b was because it involved breaching the principle, which she did openly

and said he was ready to do it. then conservatives said they would not do it. that is now a fracture in the party that will be extremely hard to reconcile. if you can not, how did yoget a deal done before january 1? i am not sure they can be do that is essentiay the proem the president faced with boehner twtwo years ago, last year. can he deliver? how can you n negotiate with someone who cannot deliver his side? >> you go to people for support at least three owhom have lost their committee assignments. how can you expect them to come into your way of thinking? >> and they wer growing when john boehnhner went down, taking some delight, but that was cleared, that was pre-cleared by the leadership. the leadership was with them. this is not a questio of -- quite bluntly, leaving and losing the virginity on the issue of tax cuts.

is an important thingng for thes republicans who havnot vo understand, no republican in t the house or senate d in 22 years, has not voted to crease taxes. harry reid said that it would not be taken up, the president said he would veto it. >> did everyone see e movie "lincoln?" the wheeling and dealing that had to be done? >> also a lame duck sesession. >> in those days, you could punish people. i'm going to take away the bridge, you are not going to get that school, library.. >> the roles of the road have changed. >> nobody wants to bring home the bacon any y more. >> there is a decrease in corruption and it has been truly harmful to the nation's business. >> let us remember that during

the crash of 2007, 28, in t end, it was the democrats under nancy pelosi who buildout president sh. it was the republican cretary of treasury who got down on hisis knees becaushe needed her to bring homehe votes. she was able to o do that. >> you are right. abolishh bribery in the house and it grinds to a halt. see? >> 26 people

>> since friday morning, a police officer wasunned down in memphis, leaving four

children about their mother. two officers were killed outsidide of a grocery store in topeka. woman was shot and killed inside of a lasegas casino. three people were shot inside and alababama hospital. a 4-year-old was caught in a drive by in missouri and taken off life-support just yesterday. each one of these americans was a victim of the everyday gun violence that takes the lives of more than 10,000 americans every year. violence that we cannot accept as routine. so i will use all the powers of is office to help adnce efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. >> that was the president wednesday morning. no doubt others have been killeded since then with firearms. you alknow the story. 20-year-old loner armed with semiautomatic pistols, also rivals, walks into a connecticut elelementary school and killed 26 people, 20 of them smal chilen, and then himself. prior that he fired four bullets into his mother's headad. the president has appointed

vice-president biden to come upp with a commission but he says it is not a commission that looks at the results and promises something and then pushes aside. what are the odds of that realistically? >> realistically we can see a ban on assault wpons. whether that will address the problem, i do not think so. the problem goes beyond the assault weapons, as charles poind out. there are so many weapons out there right now. there are thousands already out there in the communi. it oy takes one person to do something. >> and sales have gone up since. >> that is all true, but we could do something about the ze of these clips. having said that, we need to do something about the mental health system in our cntry. it is completely fallen apart. after the shootings at virginia

tech, in the state of virginia they appropriated $43 million more for mental health services. the next year, thhey cut it by $50 million. you cannot have aystem thatt does not treat people. you cannot have a system that does not do something about committing people for more easily for periods of time to be able to treat them. it does not work. on top of that, you have these incredibly ferocus weapons that were made four more times ththan anybody seems to be able to get a hold of simply. >> all of that is true. i dohink the change in thee commitment laws over the last 3030, 40 years has made it very diffict to compel someone to get treatment or be detained in a mental institution. these killers, it is not as if there is a lack of funds for treatment. it is the lack of the ability of

aarent's with an ill and dangerous child, to gethe help. the legal loopholes that you have to go through e such that it is almost impossible. you end up with the tucson shooter. everyone who spoke about himad a sense that he was psychotic. on guns, the problem is this. unless you are willing to completely disarm the populalation come as you do in canada or britain or australia in the 1990's, and it works and you have a decrease in gun crime, and if you allow to grandfather existing weapons come as what happened in the 1994 assault weapons law, at which time there were 25 million high-capacity magazines alrea in cculation y do not accomplish anything. the studies of the 10-year experiment of the ban on assault weapons shows it had d no effec

>> in april 1968 i was in ebenezer baptist churcin atlanta for the funeral of martin luther king. in june of 1968, i was workiking for robert knedy in cacalifornia when he was murdered. since those two events, more americans have died by fire arms than in all wars this country has fought, in combat or out of combat. guns are crazy. unless we confront that reality -- it is not just a estion of training.. i doo not disagree about mental health. it is s absolutely lunacy to have half the guns in the world in the united states of america. that is something that hahas s to be different. one other point about newtown. dillon shockckley was 6 years old. he was a spepecial-education

uden his p parents issued a statement. we take great solace that dylan died in the loving arms of his favorite teacher, a special- education teacher, , an marie murphy. 52, mother of four. the teachers of that school, the principa psychologist, the teacher that by protecting their children, saving their children, comforting theirir children, those th survived, they arerue heroes. theyave not received the recognition that they deserve. i would point out, everyone of ththem is a public schoolteacher. a group that has been c condemned vilified, and denigrated by all sorts of people. >> i do wonder about this nexus we are making between n mental illness and violence. we have had a number of gun --

violence where people were killed with fire arms, in prince george's county, too. are you suggesting that everyone who pulls a trigger is mentally ill? is that the suggestion? >> no. >> in mass killings, you look at jerry loughner, virginia tech loughner was diagngnosed as a paranoid schizophric, which you could see on day one. i am not sure about adam lanza. >> i am not nitpipicking. i do not hear the argument for mental illness -- >> of those in jail, a third of them have mental illness of some kind. that is not the point. we are talking about mass killings, those that have a psychotic breaeak. >> one quick thing here the ve states the lowowest death rates

from guns. hawaii, rhode island, massachusetts, connecticicut, new york. those are the fiveighest louisia, mississippi alaska, nevada, and alama. the former has theoughest gun lalaws and the lowest gun ownership. the oth five have the h highest gun ownership in the country and the most relaxed laws. >> we have the toughest gun laws in the city. it did not do much to cut down on the violence. it took a lot of policingng to do it. >>

>> the state department had not given benghazi the security, both physical and personal resources, it needed. >> former ambassssador thomas pickering, chairman of the accountability review board. the board's report is the result

of a pre designation so far- three rignation so fafar, but added that the end of this debate. >> it is not but i feel like -- when somebody is going down the street and they cut someononeff. the other guy isis serious and the errant driversays yoyou are right here that is what happened this week. the ate department saiaid you were right. it sort of took the wind out of the sales of the republican consnspira theorists', i think somewh. a hearing was only an hour-and- a-half long? the last one was four hours and everyone was screaming. this one was pretty reasonable. >> still some wind in your sales, charles? >> the secretary said the buck stops with hurt. the president said that the buck stops with him in the gaza. we have a report about the unbelievable systemic mistakes not giving security that was requested, ignoring, backing of

the people in benghazi, libya for extraa help. and we end up with the first slain ambassador in 30 years. where does the buck stop? with three people nobody has ever heard of -- one has been named, the others have not. the secretary of state is not even at the hearings because she has an illness and her underlings are their. >> are you suggesting she is faking an illnesess? >> i am not saying she is taking anything. she is absent from a hearing where she should have been the one to take responsibility, or to explain what the p phrase means, the buck stops here, if it doesn't stop with her but underlings. >> i do think the secretary of state e has to testify on this not as part of the department's budget or part of the department's poly simply for the resolution of the questions even after the report, which was

devastating. at the same time, if she is to have any political ambitions beyo presidential prospects -- just in her own self-interest beyond the national interest, she has t to fully explain and put this behind her so that it does not nag as a continuing question in her career. >> i can say this without fear of contradiction. if you look at every security report submitted to the state department from embassieies d consulates around the world, you will find most recommendations from security professionals are not being implemented. >> you say that as a former security officer. >> security professional do not call the shots. because you h have non-security people making these budgetary decisions and diplolomatic decisions -- for example, we do

not want to look lika garrison. we want an open embassy. those are the things that you're up against even now. as ty said in the report, the security professionals on the run were not a bug do with it wanted to do. they were not able to tell the ambassador, do not go to benghazi. i had the same probl with an ambassador. >> when? >> 1960's. the problem is still there. they can still call the shots. i had an investment come in and say, i like things just the way they are in my office. i like all of my classified material left on my desk and not walk away. you know what we had to do? we had to send an extra people to stand 24 hour guard because the ambassador was always right. >>

>> looks like john kerry will be going to this department as predicted, which opens up all kinds of posossibilities politicacally back in massachusetts. we can get io th in a

minute, but i want to talk a about chuck hagel for a moment. he came back from vietnam wh two purple hearts, talk about him going to the pentagon. there are some republicans who were not t very happy with hiss formerer republican senator. why? >> chuckck hagel had orders to go to germany. he was at fort d, new jersey and said i wanted to go to vietnam. they made him talk to the chaplain and pchologist. after two weeks, he went to vietnam. he has fought for his countntry unlike his critics. he has bled for his country unlike his critics. hehe understands war, unlike hisis critics. he does not have other incentives like dick cheney. he is prepared and r ready. bill cohen said it best. he has fought and bled for thisis country. he knows the subject matter. ask jim jones and other national

securitydvisers. >> iraq and iran, that is what upsets people about huck hagel. >> he supported the war in iraq, voted in favor, and supported the war in afghanistan. it is an odd de that supported the two were that all the critics are now crying. he also, when it camtime to dean what was a losing war in iraq with the surge, he not only opopposed it he said it would be the worst disaster since the vinam war, and it was actually a success. >> he has other problems thate will have to address. references that heade to gays, he will have to talk about the reference to the jewish lobby when he met thesraeli lobby. those questions will have to be addressed. he has some hills to climb. >> he has some hls to climb but i think he will climb them

just fine. basically, he ended up where most of the american people were about iraq and afghanistan. >> nina, you get the last word. mey christmas. see you next week.